Tuesday, September 18, 2007

Wake up those echoes – Sure, we aren’t remotely the first to pick on poor whittle Notre Dame. Several writers have pointed out that the Irish are quite arguably the worst team in Division I-A college football, with its rankings of 119th (that is last, by the way) in rushing yardage, scoring offense and total offense. And the fact the Irish have yet to score an offensive touchdown in 2007 (Florida has scored merely 23 touchdowns this year – we’d lend you one if we could). Not to mention 5 consecutive losses by the astounding totals of 187 to 51.

But a glance at ND’s standings in Sagarin’s latest ratings is still a shock – 113th among all teams (he rates all divisions together) – placing them behind not only Appalachian State but 11 other Division I-AA teams, including Hofstra and McNeese State.

In case you are further curious, using Sagarin’s predictor model, Notre Dame would lose to eventual opponent USC right now by 36 points, and to LSU by 50.

One of the finest defensive football teams I ever witnessed – the 1992 Crimson Tide – surrendered a measly 9.4 points per game. Even assuming LSU plays better offenses ahead, they are defensively on track for very big things.

Speaking of Sagarin – He actually has LSU ranked ahead of USC in his predictor model (LSU is 1, USC is 5), and has LSU beating USC by 13 in a head-to-head match-up. But he has USC number 1 in his "ELO_CHESS" model the BCS uses (LSU is 2).

University of Florida Science – This makes me proud to have a diploma. Certainly there was no trouble finding attractive people to study in Gainesville, but they must have gone to Tallahassee for the other study subjects.

Answer: The five best quarterbacks, by QB rating, in college football right now. At least four of them are getting nowhere near the love of a Brohm (ranked 6th), a Brennan (ranked 7th), or a Booty (ranked 44th!?!).

3-2-1 Liftoff? – Observers love to point out that Meyer’s offenses usually take off in year 2 of his tenures, yet failed to last year at Florida (That effeminate little crystal football aside). Do we have liftoff in early year 3? After three games, the Gators have scored 167 points, the second highest starting 3 game total in Gator history. The top five are (by year and points) –

7 comments:

Funny thing, Sports Illustrated now has Tebow on their Heisman-favorites list. If he keeps on playing at the level he's at right now he could have a legitimate shot at becoming a finalist, but then again he'd stand a snowball's chance in hell of winning it because he's only a sophomore - after all, Rex Grossman came close in 2001 but no cigar.

Brian Brohm probably didn't do his Heisman campaign any justice in that Louisville upset loss to Kentucky. Even so, he's likely to bounce back from that loss - I have him on my Heisman-favorites list so far - and even though it's too early to predict the 2008 NFL draft I wouldn't be surprised to see Bobby Petrino try to get him to Atlanta, especially after the "Michael Vick Experience" (LOL!)

Jim, Kentucky actually worries me this year and indeed Woodson is the real deal. They were down in the bottom of the SEC East with Vandy for awhile but they wound up being bowl-eligible last year, won their bowl game and have a decent team this year. It won't be an easy time in Lexington, and the Cats will be looking for an upset. We need to be VERY well prepared for that one!

Recognition

I can’t say enough about my two favorite blogs Get the Picture and Saurian Sagacity. There are not two more consistently thought-provoking and analytical college football blogs on the internet.
-Orange and Blue Hue

Rare is the SMQ shout out for the sole purpose of shouting out, but even rarer is the high substantive quality of disinterested naysaying in progress at Saurian Sagacity, where poster Mergz is steadily blowing up notions of "National Championships" new and old...-Sunday Morning Quarterback

In the old days, long before Urban Meyer roamed the sidelines at The Swamp, even before Steve Spurrier was slinging touchdowns and kicking game-winning field goals, some sports writers gave the University of Florida's football team a long-forgotten nickname: theSaurians. Today, two Florida alums pay tribute to those scribes of old as we enjoy the present and look toward the future.